Now Grace is somewhat captured in the acrostic “God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense”. But while clever, this definition misses the relational and personal reality that Grace is a person, the person of Jesus Christ, God’s gift to us.
Hebrews 12:15 reads, “See that no one falls short of the grace of God.” Falling short of the grace of God can mean opting for legalism; it can mean demanding deliverance; it can mean relying upon your own ingenuity instead of allowing Christ to live His life in and through you; it can mean choosing your righteousness instead of accepting His; it can mean opting for religious rules and rituals instead of relationship.
In Galatians 5:4 Paul tells us, “You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.”
To fall short of the grace of God is to stop short of Christ and Him alone, nothing more, nothing less. We stop short of grace when we keep Christ to ourselves. Since Christ is our life (Colossians 3:4) and He challenges us to lay our lives down for others, then it stands to reason, He is to be given away. True grace is so overwhelming that you are compelled to extend it to those around you.
Grace is to be demonstrated and dispensed to others. We are to be active givers of Christ’s life to others. The best definition of grace I have ever heard came from Michael Wells, our dear brother in heaven who wrote, “Grace… at my point of need… God is everything to me that I thought He was not!…That’s grace.”
Example…Moses had spent 40 years being trained to be everything, a god, a Pharaoh. He spent another 40 years in the wilderness discovering what he was not. Finally, he was prepared to lead, having realized that he was a “not”. God told him what to go do, and Moses accurately responded, “I am not able.” God’s response was, “What is that to Me? I am!”
God is to me all that I am not. First I must acknowledge that I am not. Next He tells me what He is. He is everything to me of which I might have need that I am not.
I am not a good father, a good husband, a good Christian, or a good witness! This is my point of need! Grace comes and meets me at my point of need! I didn’t think He could be those things to me. However, as I recognize abiding, He is to me all that I thought that He was not. There is a life in me that is a good father, a good husband, and a good witness. It is HIS life and He is everything to me that I am not.
Look at what you are not. Don’t determine to work harder. Call on the grace of God. At your point of need, He is everything to you that you thought He was not…that’s Grace, God’s gift to us!
LIFE LESSON: The world could be saved tomorrow if believers would just let Jesus Christ, the Grace of God work through them. (Romans 12:1)
Happy Birthday Jesus Christ, the Grace of God.
Merry Christmas from the team at GIGM. Please be sure to mail year end gifts no later than December 31, 2013. Thank you for partnering with us to proclaim the grace of God, Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory!